Starbucks opens its largest coffee shop in the world

The 30,000-sq ft outlet in Shanghai, China is almost half the area of a soccer field.

The outlet in Shanghai is the company’s second Starbucks Reserve Roastery.

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Coffee giant Starbucks has just opened its largest store in Shanghai, giving coffee addicts in the city a reason to celebrate. The two-story cafe, located in a busy shopping district in Shanghai, spans 2,700 square metres (30,000 square feet)—almost half the area of a soccer field. The outlet in Shanghai is the company’s second Starbucks Reserve Roastery, a larger version of the regular coffee shops featuring premium teas, coffees, and coffee-infused beer, in addition to other personalised barista services. The first roastery opened its doors in Seattle in 2014.

The larger-than-life Starbucks coffee shop has an almost “Willy Wonka” feel, with a giant two-story cask holding tonnes of freshly roasted beans that are transported to the cafe’s various bars via tubing that snakes along the ceiling. The packaged beans find their way on conveyor belts. The outlet also has three coffee bars, one of which measures 88 feet long—the coffee chain’s longest to date. A two-story, 40-tonne copper cask stand tall in the store, refilling the coffee bars’ numerous silos.

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The metal pipes transport the coffee beans from the big copper silo to the small ones

The surprises keep coming at the new Starbucks outlet in Shanghai with a tea bar made from 3D printed materials. This is also the first Starbucks shop to integrate augmented reality, allowing customers to use their smartphones to learn more about the coffee brewing process. All you need to do is point your phone to a spot in the outlet to learn more.

However, the outlet in Shanghai will find it difficult to hold on to the title of ‘world’s biggest Starbucks outlet’, as the coffee giant plans to open a 43,000-square-foot location on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue in 2019.